If we care for the environment we re-direct effort to make the planet more beautiful and life more humane in any case. It may have the benefit of saving the planet.

If we don’t care for the environment we perpetuate the current ugliness and maybe lose the planet.

I know where I think our efforts should be directed.

Given that people didn’t see things about their own epoch, though, what gives us the confidence that we can see them about our own time? Might it be that our enthusiasm for the environment is one big red herring?